WHO warns of 'complex' Ebola outbreak as virus reaches Nigeria

Abuja — The World Health Organization has warned that Africa now faces a "complex" Ebola outbreak after the virus crossed from east Africa into Nigeria, the first case in the west of the continent in the current wave. Nigeria on Tuesday announced an imported case of the Bundibugyo strain, detected in the wife of a diplomat who had travelled from Uganda to the capital Abuja.

"We are facing a more complex outbreak landscape. Nigeria has confirmed an imported case of Ebola virus disease," Mohamed Janabi, the WHO's regional director for Africa, told an online media briefing on Thursday, Africanews reported.

Health minister Muhammad Ali Pate said on Thursday that the woman's contacts had been tracked down since her arrival in Nigeria earlier this month, and that an undisclosed number of "high risk" individuals "have been quarantined, fully, in a facility", according to the South China Morning Post. Nigeria has stepped up airport health screenings, and authorities say the case remains isolated. Wide World News reported the Abuja case earlier this week.

The continent's most populous nation is now the fourth African country affected by an outbreak that this week came to span the continent. Kenya in the east has reported nine cases since 6 October, according to Africanews, while the Democratic Republic of Congo's epidemic has become the deadliest in the country's history. Congolese health authorities say the virus has killed 4,381 people out of more than 9,000 confirmed cases since mid-May.

The case has revived memories of the 2014 outbreak that struck several countries in the region and killed more than 11,000 people across west Africa between late 2013 and 2016. Nigeria contained that outbreak successfully, a record Africanews said had raised confidence the country can respond effectively again.

In eastern Congo, researchers are trialling the Ervebo vaccine to determine whether the jab, approved for the Zaire strain, works against the Bundibugyo strain driving the current outbreak, for which there is no licensed vaccine or treatment. The WHO said in August that 70,000 doses had been approved for use in Congo. For now, the families of those quarantined in Abuja are waiting to learn whether Nigeria's contact tracing has held the line once more.